Within a two week period, in two unconnected conversations, two people told me that practising mindfulness had probably saved their lives. Now, you may think this sounds like an exaggeration. If I hadn’t known both of these people pretty well, I would have agreed.

 Both these friends are highly intelligent, socially active, and professionally effective. Neither are prone to exaggeration or melodrama. They talked about being at low points in their lives when mindfulness was introduced to them, in a measured way as part of our conversation.

 Both men said that they thought that as their lives were at such a low point they may as well not go on living, so they had nothing to lose by giving mindfulness a go. Many years later the two men are alive and thriving.

 The two conversations left me surprised that both these strong and entrepreneurial people had experienced such hopelessness during their lives. That old saying that, “every cloud has a silver lining”, rang very true.

 Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that mindfulness practice or meditation are the panacea to feeling suicidal or severe depression. Whilst I know that these approaches are used in the treatment of mental health problems, it isn’t that straight forward.

 For me the important question is; how can more people be attracted to trying mindfulness as a technique for getting through both the good and the bad times, in the best of mental shape, without first having to reach crisis point? Having the practise under our belts will equip us much better to be our most creative when we are at our best and to get through the tough times with better perspective (and a better night’s sleep).

 As someone who has worked in the field of leadership development for over 20 years, I firmly believe that mindfulness as a practise should be embedded into leadership training. Leaders have further to fall when things go wrong – if they are more mindful, or mind-fit, more of the time, their decisions are likely to be better and they are likely to be able to ride the rough seas with a steady hand and an open heart. They are also likely to be better leaders and communicators who inspire followership and develop more leaders around them.

 We owe it to ourselves, to those we work with and live with, to make mindful practise part of the way we are.

If you practice mindfulness or meditation, what convinced you to give mindfulness a go?

If you don’t already practice, what would it take to give you an appetite for it?

You may be on the cusp and looking for that opportunity – decide now and work with two world-leading teachers of mindfulness and mind-fitness with from the US on 5 June in London: http://bit.ly/1tymgzT. It would be great to meet you there!